By The families of victims of Nazi crimes in Italy who were hanged in October 1943, have finally received justice. Eighty years ago, after the Nazis began a brutal occupation of their former allies, German troops hanged six Italian civilians on a hillside in southern Italy as collective punishment for the murder of a soldier.
Eighty years later, several relatives of the men sentenced to death in Fornelli finally received compensation of 12 million euros or the equivalent of Rp. 197 billion awarded by an Italian court as compensation for their family’s trauma.
We still commemorate this event every year. “This event will never be forgotten,” said Mauro Petrarca, great-grandson of one of the dead, Domenico Lancellotta. The victim was a 52-year-old Roman Catholic father who had five daughters and one son.
All the victims except one family member who was alive at the time of the murder have now died.
Under Italian law, the losses they have to bear can still be passed on to their heirs. This means Petrarca will receive around 130,000 euros under the terms of the 2020 court decision. Ironically, it will be Italy that will bear the loss, not Germany. The country lost a battle at the International Court of Justice over whether Berlin could still be held responsible for damages related to the crimes and atrocities of the Second World War.
Victims of the Nazis in Italy Finally Get Compensation After 80 Years
The families of victims of Nazi crimes in Italy who were hanged in October 1943, have finally received justice. Eighty years ago, after the Nazis began a brutal occupation of their former allies, German troops hanged six Italian civilians on a hillside in southern Italy as collective punishment for the murder of a soldier.
Eighty years later
several relatives of the men sentenced to death in Fornelli finally received compensation of 12 million euros or the equivalent of Rp. 197 billion awarded by an Italian court as compensation for their family’s trauma.
We still commemorate this event every year. “This event will never be forgotten,” said Mauro Petrarca, great-grandson of one of the dead, Domenico Lancellotta. The victim was a 52-year-old Roman Catholic father who had five daughters and one son.
All the victims except one family member who was alive at the time of the murder have now died. Under Italian law, the losses they have to bear can still be passed on to their heirs. This means Petrarca will receive around 130,000 euros under the terms of the 2020 court decision.
Ironically, it will be Italy that will bear the loss, not Germany.
The country lost a battle at the International Court of Justice over whether Berlin could still be held responsible for damages relate to the crimes and atrocities of the Second World War.
Jewish organizations in Italy believe that Berlin must pay to recognize their historical responsibility. But victims’ groups are also worrie that Rome will be slow in dealing with the multitude of claims that could weigh on the state’s accounts.
“This is a very sad problem, both from a political and legal point of view,” said Giulio Disegni, vice president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), which has been monitoring the issue on behalf of Jews who were victims of the Nazi horrors.
In a study funded by the German government and published in 2016, 22,000 Italians are estimate to have been victims of Nazi war crimes, including up to 8,000 Jews who were deport to death camps.
Thousands of other Italians were force to work as slaves in Germany, making them entitled to reparations.
The first to be compensate were the families of six Catholic Fornelli men. Who were hange when German soldiers played music on a phonograph stolen from a nearby house. The killings came a month after Italy signed an armistice with Allied forces. Ending their participation in the Second World War and leaving the Nazis behind. Who immediately began their occupation of the country. The Mayor of Fornelli, Giovanni Tedeschi, welcomed this decision. “This is not about money. This is about seeking justice for war crimes, about dignity,” said Fornelli Mayor Giovanni Tedeschi.
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